It's often contended that classical music is a dying art, and will wither when its elderly audience fades away.

But that's not so. If you want proof that this sublime genre is alive, thriving and celebrated by our most talented young musicians, all you have to do is go to a free concert in Kitchener at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

It's at Centre in the Square, and features the National Youth Orchestra Canada.

The concert kicks off a Canada-wide tour for these 96 musicians aged 16 to 28, after more than a month spent in preparation.

At the performance, you'll be treated to a warm, lush sound as the works of Mahler, Strauss and Canadian contemporary composer Neal Gripp are played. You might detect a frisson of excitement in the air, too. For these young instrumentalists, playing for an audience is anything but routine.

That's what is so rewarding about leading this particular orchestra, says the conductor, Emmanuel Villaume.

"In two weeks you can shape things and awaken things in these beautiful young spirits," said Villaume, who is also music director of the Dallas Opera and principal conductor of the Slovakian Philharmonic Orchestra.

They may start rehearsals at a less expert level than more experienced colleagues, but that changes very quickly. By performance time, they are "way beyond… the more routine professional orchestra," he said.

And there is the "freshness, a sense of discovering the music for the first time," he said. "Every professional musician should have this rapport with their younger colleagues."

In the next few weeks, the young players will perform in cities across the country. But Waterloo Region gets special attention, with several chamber concerts in Waterloo and Cambridge over the past month, as well as the concert in Kitchener.

That's because Laurier is now the permanent summer home of this elite ensemble. It provides the practice rooms and the dorm rooms, the rehearsal halls and concert halls. Two Laurier faculty members, Larry Larson and Stephen Sitarski, are among the distinguished teachers from across North America who've coached the young players for the past month.

The young musicians know they're lucky.

"You make a lot of lifetime friends here," said Cadee Qiu, an 18-year-old violin player from Toronto who will attend Princeton University in the fall.

Being surrounded by so many other fine musicians "forces you to play your best," said Dakota Martin, 21, a flautist who just graduated from McGill University.

Other musicians say they enjoy summer in quiet Waterloo. It's easier to focus on music if they're away from home and without the distractions of a big city.

It's difficult to get into the youth orchestra — just one applicant in five makes the cut — but once they're in, players are well treated and their expenses are essentially covered.

Villaume is impressed that Canada provides so much government support for this orchestra.

"The way a society treats its art is very revealing of the state of the soul of that society," he said.

The concert is free, but audience members still need a ticket. Pick one up any time before the performance. The box office opens at 10 a.m.